Taking Tamil Rap to new heights

Tea Kada Pasanga (Tea Shop Boys) and Aaryan Dinesh Kanagaratnam(ADK) recently released a collaborative song, Rap Machi with ADK an internationally renowned rapper who has worked with composers like A.R. Rahman and Yuvan Shankar Raja.

The song is already making waves in the rap scene, the creators behind the song believe this song will influence many other Tamil rappers across the globe to make rap songs and collaborate for new ventures.

The creators of RAP MACHINES International for short known as Rap Machi spoke to Youth Observer about the song, making of the video and collaborating with ADK.

Q:ADK is one of the most celebrated local artists internationally, how do you feel about the collaboration?

"Having worked together with ADK is a very big opportunity for us. He being one of the biggest names in the Tamil Rap scene has been very generous in introducing talent to mainstream media. He was the one who initiated this band called Tea Kada Pasanga and he has always been a pillar of support to the entire project we worked on.

We have been closely associated with him through a few years but we learnt a lot working so closely with him during the making of this video. To have worked with someone of this calibre is very overwhelming and we are thankful for this."

Q:Tell us something about Rap Machi?

"Well! As the name energizes on the perfect combo of RAP and RAPPORT, this is single to be published by the emerging international record company RAP MACHINES International RAP MACHI stands for its short-form or rather the subset of the label itself".

Q: How does it feel to be collaborating with many artistes?

"The venture was initiated by ADK, the Sri Lankan rapper who has constantly been collaborating with world-renowned composers like A.R. Rahman, Yuvan Shankar Raja and many more. The song features nearly 10 artistes representing India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia & Singapore starting with ADK and Team TKP (Nirosh Vijay, KrishManoj & Jeev) singing the main chorus; followed by Jack Styles & MC Sanna (Representing India), Shastan&Elvi (Representing Malaysia).

Music for RAP Machi has been produced by one of Sri Lanka’s coming to a new age music producer Kavishka, a.k.a. K2.

Q:What can we expect from the collaborations?

"It was indeed a mountain to climb with all eight of us coordinating together to come under one roof. We had to record the respective portions separately and send it to the composer to mix and master the track. If not for the teamwork of all of us this music video would have not been possible and we are immensely happy that we were able to pull it off and come out with a product like RAP MACHI."

Q: Will there be any future collaborations as well?

"International collaborations like these will lead to a bigger reach among the audience and also shows the unity among artistes despite geographical differences. In a nutshell, the idea behind the venture is to take Tamil RAP Music to garner international coverage. We will come up with more tracks like this featuring many artistes in future."

Q: Tell us about shooting the music video?

The music video was shot by Sanjay from Chennai, India. He flew across to all the respective countries and shot various portions. He is a youngster with immense talent which ADK identified and allowed him to handle the cameras even for such a big project. He has done an amazing job and that has been well reflected in the video.